4.19.2010

Dictionary Philology...

Tantalizing...Spate...Billowing...

What do these words mean to you?

They are very important to me, and perhaps for a few others as well.

Tantalizing.

I am aware of this word, and the full implications of its meaning. However, I used it in a different way in my first year of college in 2007. I was sitting in one of my first year courses, when I looked up and saw this disgustingly huge brown spider make its way up the back of the young man sitting in front of me. When I was trying to explain to my friends, with a shudder, I described the motion of the legs as being tantalizing, meaning that they were creepy. Jake teased me incessantly about this, and even to this day we use that word (we definitely use it in the right context now-a-days...). Even though I pretended that it bothered me when Jake teased me, I secretly enjoyed it because I had a small crush on him back then...

Spate.

One day in the library, Katie and I were reading a textbook in 2007 when Jake came up and sat down at the same table. (I was secretly excited because I had a thing for Jake back then...seems to be the growing trend). Somehow, the three of us came across the word spate (perhaps Katie or Jake remember where it came from), and we immediately loved it and used it for a plethora, er, spate of things.

Billowing.

Jake and I were watching a Bollywood movie last year before we started dating (I was flirtatiously excited because I had a huge thing for him back then...still do!), and one of the actresses was standing on the top of a mountain, with her hair flowing with the breeze. The only word we could come up with to describe it was "billowing". It was an apt description, and now whenever a wind teases my hair, we always say that it is billowing.

All of these words have pleasant connotations or memories of times with friends, and somehow, when I think about finding new words to love within the folds of the dictionary, these seem to present themselves like gifts to me in delightfully surprising ways all over again...

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About the Author

Ashleigh is wife to an amazing man, stay-at-home-mama to a cute little munchkin,a Jesus-follower, and an independent consultant with Jamberry. When she's not blogging (which isn't often these days!) she can be found reading at the library with her little guy or devouring chocolate in a corner somewhere.